China Birds

A suite of engraved bird prints from 

the 1730s by Gabriel Huquier

(all the images above were cropped around the plate margin 

and the backgrounds have been extensively cleaned of stains)

'Livre des Différentes Espèces d'Oiseaux de la Chine' (Book of different species of Chinese birds) from the 1730s, engraved by Gabriel Huquier, was posted to the Biodiversity Heritage Library by the Smithsonian Institution. The book has no text, save for the title page illustration up top. (also: Internet Archive) [a bibliographic note at the Smithsonian implies that the book seen above may derive from an earlier one by Huquier: link]

The original (uncropped/uncleaned) pages were also uploaded by BHL to a Flickr set (also see all BHL Flickr sets).

A larger book ('Oiseaux de la Chine', also from the 1730s) by Jean-Baptiste Oudry features 60 plates, reproducing individual (and pairs and triplet) bird images originally engraved by Huquier. Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art hosts a hand-coloured edition of this book (click on the image and then note the thumbnail icon bottom left)

"The entrepreneurial printseller Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772), established in rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, was a prominent engraver and designer of ornament in an advanced Rococo taste, a pivotal figure in the production of French 18th-century ornamental etchings and engravings who was himself a collector of works of art." [W]

Also see Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at the Smithsonian - they feature a wide array of Huquier's works, particularly his early Rococo style ornament engravings.

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